Violent Clicking at startup - Solved - Belt not seated correctly.
 

Hello everyone,

So I just got done swapping out my water pump and while I was putting everything back together. Just as I was done I went to tighten the alternator adjustment and dropped my wrench and cause a nice big couple of sparks between my battery and alternator.

Then, When starting my car I get a violent ticking noise. Is it something that I did wrong with the water pump or is it an electrical issue?

Here is a possibly related thread:

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...light=clicking

Thanks for your help,

-Shnifty

Hard to tell with absolute certainty.
Can you have someone in the car while you observe under the hood and try to narrow it down?
Does the ticking sound generate when the key is turned to 'ON' (not starting the car) or does it only tick while starting the car?

It doesnt happen in the on position. It starts as soon as I turn over the engine. Think it'd be ok to let it happen for a little bit? The two times I've tried, i shut my car off right away.

You probably tensioned the belts wrong.

Could be a bad battery. Check the belts like Renesis SE3P mentioned too.

:/ how do I check that? Obviously I've never done this before.

ok, so I found out that it was in fact the belt. shame on me, It must have been seated incorrectly because 1 of the groves go cut off. Do you think I'll be able to drive it to pick up a new one? the rest of the belt should be fine still.

how do I make sure the belt is correctly tightened?

Rule of thumb twist the belt enough to where it has some play id say quarter of a twist.. my rule of thumb unless you wanna get all technical with TQ specs etc etc

pics

Ok, well thanks for the help. I took it for a test drive and it seems to be fine. I'm hoping that gimp belt holds out until I can get a new one.

You put too much tension on the belt.

Next time test tension by sqeezing two sides of the belt together with your thumb and finger, it should move about 3/4" or so. If it's stiff then it's too tight

I had the exact same thing happen; same noise and same cause, it will be fine until you get a new one

Ok, thanks.